


Forest for the Trees

by bellatemple



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: (kind of), (sort of), Case Fic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Episode s04e07 And the Disenchanted Forest, Gen, Hallucinations, I really like the idea of Stone talking to trees okay?, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 01:06:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13376868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellatemple/pseuds/bellatemple
Summary: Some time after the events of "And the Disenchanted Forest", the Librarians find themselves out in the woods again.  And Eve really should have seen this coming.





	Forest for the Trees

**Author's Note:**

> So [jacobstone](http://jacobstone.tumblr.com/) over on Tumblr offered up the following [prompt](https://jacobstone.tumblr.com/post/169674206376/the-librarians-prompt-the-team-get-a-case-where-a): "The team get a case where a ton of mysterious forest fires keep happening. But after establishing a connection with the trees, can they figure it out before Jacob goes insane?" I didn't really want to do forest fires after all the wildfire destruction out west, but people turning into trees is sort of a favorite magical threat for me and I have all these Thoughts about Stone and trees now and I couldn't not do _anything_ with it. . . .

Honestly, Eve probably should have seen this coming. 

She'd been off her game since Flynn left and she knew it. It was hard to concentrate when her brain just wanted to run around in circles yelling "why why whyyyyyy" all the time. This was exactly why she never used to have people in her life. Well, this and the fact that throwing herself into war zones for a living made it hard to relate to civilians. 

Let's be real: that part? Had not changed. If anything, now that her team consisted of three untrained lunatics, it was even worse. 

No. "Lunatic" was a poor choice of words right now. Anyway, she needed to focus — 

"See, _this_ is why I should be the one true Librarian." 

"Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up." 

"Yeah, what he said!" 

"Pretty sure he's still talking to the trees!" 

"All of you!" Eve held up both hands in a time-out gesture. " _Knock it off!_ " 

"Shut up shut up shut up. . . ." 

Well. At least she got two out of three. 

Stone pressed his arms over his head, still muttering the same litany of "shut up"s he'd been on for the last fifty meters of woods at least. He'd been spacey and subdued since they left the lodge, but now she wasn't certain if he could even hear them. She wanted nothing more than to send him back to the Library while the rest of them cleared this case up, but they'd left the last available door behind an hour's hike back. 

Right, new policy: they were going to start traveling with their own portable doorway they could hook the back door up to. Just as soon as she worked out _how_. 

"Okay." She clapped her hands together and looked between Ezekiel and Cassandra. "Don't suppose I can convince one of you to walk Stone back to the lodge while the other helps me figure this out." 

As though in answer, Stone chose that moment to sink to his knees, his "shut up"s fading into a steady, pained hiss. She really hoped he remembered to breathe in there somewhere. 

"Yeah," Cassandra said. "Don't think that's going to work right now." 

"He's hallucinating, right?" Ezekiel asked Cassandra. "Why don't you teach him your tricks for dealing?" 

"Well, for one thing, half of the tricks I know I learned _from Stone_. For another —" 

"For another," Eve said. "He's not hallucinating, so much as hearing something the rest of us can't. Like a psychic. Or a dog." 

She hated this case. How hard would it have been for Stone to pipe up and, oh, she didn't know, _mention_ at least in passing that he could still understand trees? Especially when the artifact they were investigating was apparently causing _spontaneous tree death_. In the middle of a very large _forest_. 

Apparently trees screamed. She would really have loved never to have to have learned that one. 

"He screams for the trees," Ezekiel said, for once managing to sound sad, instead of just pompous or annoyed. "For the trees have no tongues." 

"Technically screaming involves more throat than tongue," said Cassandra. 

"Y'all are not helping," Stone ground out, the first intelligible words he'd managed other than "shut up" for the last ten minutes. "'Specially Jones." 

"Trees are screaming in your head, mate," Ezekiel said. "Kind of outside my wheelhouse." 

"Did they stop?" Cassandra asked, dropping into a crouch next to Stone, her hands hovering uncertainly over his shoulders. "Are you okay?" 

"No." Stone still had one hand pressed to his head, the other splayed out on the mossy ground. Eve wasn't sure which of Cassandra's questions he was answering. Probably both. 

"You're coherent, at least," she offered. "That's an improvement." 

Stone nodded with clear effort and wobbled his way to his feet. He winced as a breeze blew through, and pressed his hands to his ears. "Cassandra's tricks," he muttered. "Not — quite the same situation, but — 's helping a little." 

"Ha, see?" Ezekiel spread his hands. "You all should listen to me more." 

Eve ignored him, stepping up to offer Stone a steadying hand. "Have they at least told you anything useful?" she asked. "Anything about how all this started?" 

"Ooo." Cassandra waved both hands in the air. "Maybe they know which tree's patient zero!" 

Stone's head turned a few degrees, his eyes drifting somewhere to their left. Aaaaaand they were losing him again. Eve grabbed his chin and literally dragged his gaze back to hers. "Stone," she said, throwing an extra dose of Colonel in to keep his attention. "Are they doing anything other than screaming?" 

"No." Eve wasn't sure this time if he was actually answering any of their questions. If his jaw clenched any tighter, he was going to crack his molars. And the Library didn't offer dental. 

"Is the screaming worse in any direction?" Cassandra asked. "We could walk around a little." 

"Triangulate the hallucinations," said Ezekiel. "That's great. Very posh, very high tech." 

"No," Stone ground out again. His brows furrowed, and he was starting to collapse in on himself. Eve grabbed his shoulders to keep him upright. 

"They're not hallucinations!" Cassandra said. "Hallucinations are produced by the brain, these are coming from the environment!" 

"Are we sure?" Ezekiel asked. "We haven't exactly caught Stone chatting up the trees back at the Annex. Maybe he's just gone round the bend." 

"Is there anything you can pick out that can guide us?" Eve pitched her voice above their bickering, holding on tighter when Stone started to mutter again. "Hey, come on, Stone. Focus here. Stay with me." 

"Maybe there aren't enough trees at the Annex," Cassandra was saying. "Maybe they need enough of a concentration to start talking to him. The trees in the Devil's Forest operated as a collective, not individual trees." 

"Maybe he's still just Grandma Willow enough to have caught Dutch Elm or whatever that's affecting these trees," Ezekiel said. "And it's making him hallucinate." 

"Shut up," Stone said, pulling back against Eve's grip. "Shut up shut up. . . ."

"Oh no you don't." Eve looked around for a rock or something she could lean Stone against so he didn't end up just toppling to the ground, but all she saw were more trees. "We're losing him again. Stone, look at me. Can you hear me?" 

Stone wrenched away from her with a bellow, backing up several steps past Ezekiel and Cassandra before stumbling to a stop. "Shut _up!_ " 

"Mate!" Ezekiel shouted back, stepping right into Stone's face. "That's not working! The trees _aren't listening!_ " 

The look of wild-eyed fury in Stone's eyes made Eve want to pull Ezekiel back away from him. Cassandra hopped back a step with a faint gasp. Stone had never been violent towards any of them, and honestly, weirdly animated branches aside, neither had trees, but _something_ was clearly happening to Stone here, and all her soldierly and Guardian instincts were kicking in. 

"I'm not — _talking_ — to the trees!" The statement clearly took some effort, though whether that was from magic interference or just pure frustration, Eve wasn't sure. "I'm talking to all of you!" 

All three of them fell silent for a moment. Then Ezekiel raised a hand. "Mate —" 

Cassandra was the one to clap a hand over his mouth only by virtue of being a couple feet closer. Eve glanced at them, then nodded to Stone, her hands raised in — what, surrender? To show him she wasn't armed? 

This whole mission had gone straight to hell and they hadn't even gotten enough intel to report it to Jenkins yet. 

Stone closed his eyes tight, hands massaging his temples, and nodded. " _Thank_ you. Got plenty enough yelling going on up here as it is." He put out a hand to steady himself, hit a tree, and full-body flinched away from it. "They're not — screaming. They're trying to — to tell me what's wrong — but there's some kinda —" He folded his arms tight over his chest, eyes still closed, and huddled in on himself as though he was standing in a crowded room and trying not to take up too much space. "Back with the Grandfather tree, once I learned their language, the forest all spoke as one." 

"Told you," Cassandra said to Ezekiel, then clapped her free hand over her own mouth with a squeak. "Sorry!" 

Stone didn't open his eyes, but Eve caught the way they crinkled at the edges anyway, in smile-lines instead of pain. "They're not — together, here," he said. He tilted his head and frowned, then slowly opened his eyes. "Whatever's happening here broke the forest's connection. It's not operating as a whole anymore. That's why all the trees are dying — they're being cut off." 

"From the central tree," Eve said, careful to keep her voice low. "The Grandfather." 

Stone looked at her and nodded. His eyes were red and all the muscles in his face seemed to sag with the weight of the forest. He looked wiped out. "And each other. Yeah." 

Cassandra raised her hand, waiting until Stone looked at her before she spoke. "Do they know when it started?" 

Stone looked away, head tilted, then shrugged. "I can't tell. They're all talking at once." 

"Try to single out just one," Cassandra suggested, moving closer. "Like — when you're in a crowded restaurant, and you're trying to listen to just the person you're having dinner with." 

Stone huffed a sigh, rubbing his eyes, then looked over at the tree next to him. He frowned, swaying in its direction, and swallowed like a seasick recruit. "It's no good," he said. "Restaurant's too crowded. I can't — it's not like I can ask it to speak up." 

"Touch it," Eve said, surprising even herself. Stone looked at her wide-eyed, and gave her the same little head shake he did when she told him to hit someone on the team. 

"The physical connection might help," Cassandra said. "What happened when you did it a minute ago? You barely brushed it." 

Stone shook his head again, physically shrinking away from the tree. "Nothing. I didn't —" He bit the word off and fell silent, looking miserable. 

"Last time you touched a tree was when it ate you," Ezekiel said suddenly. "Wasn't it. You don't want to go all Han-Solo-in-carbonite again." 

By the way Stone looked away, Eve knew it was true. 

"That was weeks ago," Cassandra said. "You really haven't touched _any_ trees since then?" 

Stone gave her a bewildered look. "Have you?" 

"Yeah," Cassandra said. ". . . Not before we started hiking out here, though." 

This conversation wasn't getting them anywhere. Eve could see by the way Stone's shoulders twitched that he was still being bombarded by the trees. 

"I think you need to try it, Stone," she said. "The Devil's Forest was a special circumstance. I don't think these trees can —" _Eat._ "— abduct you." 

Stone gave that little head shake again, staring at the tree. 

"Here." Ezekiel grabbed one of Stone's hands, making him jump. "Trees don't want me, do they?" Stone frowned. "There you go," Ezekiel continued, as though that was an agreement. And though there was no actual logic to the idea that Ezekiel just holding his hand would keep the tree from — _not_ eating, Eve was never going to forgive Ezekiel for putting _that_ in her head — enveloping Stone, it seemed to be enough. Stone hesitated one last time, then shut his eyes and pressed his free hand to the tree. 

His knees buckled immediately, and both Eve and Cassandra rushed in to help, but Ezekiel was already there, hanging on to Stone's whole arm now instead of just his hand. Eve wasn't sure Stone even noticed. His face had relaxed, but instead of relief, all she felt was more worry. He had the same stoic look he'd worn in the Devil's Forest, the one that made her wonder if he'd still even been there, behind those wooden features. She found herself repeatedly checking where his hand met the tree, watching for — she wasn't sure what. Bark wrapping around his fingers, maybe, or a telltale magical glow. 

"Stone?" Cassandra called softly. Eve could hear the same worries echoed in her voice. "Is it working?" 

Stone leaned harder into the tree, turning his face towards it. "Yeah, it — it's still garbled. Like there's some sort of — feedback. But —" He opened his eyes, and for a moment Eve could swear they were dark gray-brown, instead of blue. "It's scared." 

"See if it can tell you what happened," Eve said. The sooner they had answers, the sooner she could stop worrying about losing another Librarian. Losing Stone, who had become a close friend, not just a charge. "Right before it lost contact with the rest of the forest." 

Stone nodded and closed his eyes again, pulling away from Ezekiel to rest his whole forearm, palm to elbow, against the tree trunk. Ezekiel shifted with him, refusing to let go. Eve caught herself holding her breath. 

"There were a couple of kids," Stone said, after a long enough pause to make Eve's chest hurt. He smiled faintly. "Trees think we're all kids, but yeah — these two were young. Crusty hippie types." 

"Protesters," Cassandra said. "Remember, the ranger said these woods have been full of them lately, ever since the government started selling off parts of the park. But why would environmentalists hurt the trees?" 

Stone's brows furrowed. "They brought something with them. Small and cold and shar-aaaughh!" His head jerked back and he went down, draggin Ezekiel with him. Eve and Cassandra both rushed in to help pull him away from the tree, but he dug his fingers in, fighting them off. "No — don't." He panted through his nose. Ezekiel shot Eve a panicked look, his fingers tight on Stone's arm. "Please. Let me listen." 

Eve nodded, though she hated every second of this. "What's it saying?" 

"The artifact," Stone said. "It's a metal spike." 

"LIke a railroad spike?" asked Ezekiel. 

"A tree spike," said Eve. "It's a radical form of protest, basically environmental terrorism. They drive metal spikes into trees to try and ruin them for the logging industry. At best it just gets ignored, but if someone using power tools hits it?" 

Cassandra and Ezekiel winced. 

"It's not supposed to hurt the tree, though," Eve said. "The one these guys used must have been cursed." 

"The magic's disrupting the forest's _gestalt_ ," Cassandra said, hands up as she worked her gift. "Cutting these trees off from the central life force, causing them to die off one by one. Which in turn is harming the _gestalt_ , which will harm more trees. . . ." 

"Do we need to get the zero seed?" Ezekiel asked. 

"This can't have been more than a few weeks ago," Cassandra said. "Trees don't grow that fast. If we can find it, maybe we can just . . . pull it out. And let the forest's natural healing process take over."

Eve nodded. "Stone." She looked down at him and swallowed. He'd crumpled while they spoke, his whole side pressed against the tree now, his skin the slightly green pallor of a freshly broken branch. "Stone, hey." She knelt down and cupped his cheek, giving him a little shake, then smiled as best she could when he looked up at her. "Just a little longer," she promised him. "We need to know which tree they spiked." 

Stone's eyes fell shut again. Eve wanted to yank him away from the tree, but he had his arm wrapped around it now, as if holding on for dear life.

Or like he was giving the tree a hug. 

"Not yet," he said, barely more than a whisper. "It's scared. It's dying and — it's so _alone_." 

"I know, Stone. But we can fix it, okay? We can save it if we just —" 

"Eve," Cassandra said, and Eve looked up. "I think it's too late for this one." 

Leaves were falling. They had been the whole time they were in the forest, one or two fluttering down as they walked, but now it was a veritable shower of them, some brown and withered, but most pale green, what should have been healthy spring foliage. She tilted her head back and saw the branches, bare and winter-black. 

"What," Eve started, but had to pause to get past a tightness in her chest. "Stone, what can we do?" 

"Nothing," Stone said, voice spare as a wind through dry leaves. "Just — be here. Don't leave us alone." 

Eve looked down sharply — she didn't like the sound of that "us" — and caught Ezekiel's wide-eyed look back. Stone's eyes were shut, his face slack, his cheek pressed firmly into the tree's flaking bark. "Alright, Stone," she said, and rested her hand on the trunk above his head. Cassandra's hand joined hers, their thumbs just brushing. "Alright. We won't." 

She wasn't sure how long it took, but all four of them — five? Several hundred, including the forest — waited in silence as the tree lived its final moments. The fall of leaves slowed, the afternoon sun winking gold through it, and then stopped. The forest fell silent for a moment, not even a bird call or a whisper of breeze, as though the whole world were mourning its loss. 

Stone was the first to move, pushing himself upright, then toppling slowly sideways until his head landed on Ezekiel's shoulder. Ezekiel leaned his own head against Stone's and Cassandra let out a tiny sigh, letting her fingers fall just short of touching them both. Eve watched all three of them, and wondered how anyone could ever believe that they'd do anything other than continue to support each other. 

Then something went crashing through a nearby bush, some animal looking for dinner. Ezekiel jerked his head upright as though denying the moment ever happened and dragged Stone with him to his feet. "Alright, you old hippie. Time to use your tree whispering mojo to find us that evil spike." 

Stone groaned and swatted him in the back of the head. "I thought I told you to shut up." He staggered forward, squinting at the various other trees around them, then wobbled his way off to the west, Ezekiel still hovering close behind. Eve waived for Cassandra to follow so she could take up the rear. 

"You know," Cassandra said. "When we get back we should look into planting some more trees around the Annex. So the ones already there don't have to feel lonely." 

"Cassandra, I like the way you think." 

Yeah. They might all just come out of this okay, after all.


End file.
